Metallica: Through the Never (2013)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Charming and brutal

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Whilst METALLICA are playing a show somewhere, a young roadie is sent across the city to fetch a bag. Admittedly, this story-line doesn't sound like serious competition for 'The Wall' or 'Quadrophenia' - because it isn't. But if we only consider 'Through the Never' as a concert movie with a bit of cool rock video decoration, it is actually fun and extremely good looking. However, when the band members praise the challenge of a narrative concept in the making-of, I wonder if they read all 3 pages of the script, which includes scenes like 'guy puts himself on fire to win a fight' (no he doesn't), 'guy looks into bag and doesn't tell us what he finds inside' (boo!) and 'hammer bloke hangs people for fun' (which probably has some intricate symbolism woven into it, but hidden so well that nobody will ever find out).The movie has its best moments not with the larger than life bits, but with the little touches, for example when a microphone fails in 'Ride the Lightning' and James angrily pushes it away - this is a well-staged moment to show the band not as flawless super-heroes, but normal human beings. The collapsing statue and the (Tesla coil) lightnings make the performance visually memorable, but this probably would have worked just as well without the, uh, 'narrative concept'. I voted 8/10 which is a compromise between 10 for the visual qualities, 9 for the music and 4 for the 'story'.

WORST MOVIE I've EVER SEEN!!! This directer just took a perfectly good band and mixed them in a blender with complete sh*#. Its like mixing Beethoven with slip knot. Worst movie I've ever seen in my freaking life. Every time it like shows a billion life years of Metallica and then switches to the other crap that makes no freaking since theirs not even a plot for the story for only a second, then switches back to Metallica for hours!!! Don't believe the other reviews those are just stupid fan boys. I bet James,Kirk,Lars,and Rob don't even like the movie. I bet when they saw the reviews they were probably like "WHAT THE F*%#"!!!!!!!!!!

As a Metallica fan for more than twenty years (since I was a young teenager back in 1991) I didn't know what to expect from this METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER. I heard a few little things about it but nothing too specific because I wanted to go see it with a fresh mind, without any previous ideas. That said and by what I've seen I think it's mainly a concert with a parallel plot that it is in fact a bit confusing and unclear. I don't know if it was just a hallucination (since he took some pills in the beginning, before he went to his mission) or not but the guy dies and rises again like an immortal! In fact it really seems to be just an amount of stuck scenes to illustrate the songs which were being played in the concert, more than a solid and coherent plot. But if it was the case I think better "scenes" should have been chosen to "illustrate" the songs, exception made just for two or three, like "Fuel" or "Ride the lightning". Nice FX were used though and technically the scenes are well done, I just feel that if we separate the "concert" and the "movie" this last one would be very short, incoherent and almost with no sense… So I think this feature is essentially (and essential!) for Metallica fans as it is mainly a concert, and as a live performance I think it was great! I also did appreciate the final credits when the play "Orion" all dressed in black. I quickly understood it was some kind of memorial, but unlike I initially thought it wasn't dedicated to Cliff Burton but to Mark Fisher instead (famous stage architect who died last year). As a "concert" I would score it straightest to the top but as a "movie" I don't score it more than 7/10.

For me Metallica was finished on 09-26-1986 When Cliff played his last gig. However I did like the Garage days $5.98 EP. Having said that the concert is polished even though I did not know several songs at all as the last L.P. I bought was Master of Puppets and the last item I ever bought was Cliff 'em All DVD. By no means is this the worst film I have ever seen. For a concert film it is quite good. And as it is as the other Doyle put it its a nice trippy surreal experience. And for me I needed it to make the vapid and jejune music of most songs since Cliff died and James'heart broke tolerable. I would never pay for it in the cinema I watched it at a friends but IMAX 3D would have been superb. All in all it is worth a look even if like me you have not liked them since Master of Puppets. I may even buy it in 3D if its in the Used bin (which I'm sure it will be) at F.Y.E. when I'm in the USA. The direction on the "film" is nice and the cut away's are well placed and well done. And as far as Dave "republican shill" Mustane being the poster who hated itNaww he is too busy counting money and kissing government @$$ to care about this piece of film.